ATL Comment On News Of Potential University Expansion

20 November 2008

Martin Freedman, head of pay, conditions and pensions at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said:

“We support widening education, but it has to be relevant to the ambitions and needs of students and society.

“Some of the 27 towns interested in setting up higher education centres already have successful further education colleges. We don’t want these colleges and new universities to compete for students at each other’s expense, nor do we want students to abandon FE colleges because they think higher education must be better.

“In the light of the Government’s cap on the number of extra HE students this proposed university expansion raises questions about how additional universities can function if limits are placed on the number of students?

“If the Government can’t afford to fund the existing number of students, how can it afford to pay for increasing student numbers, and how can we ensure new universities don’t finance themselves by simply taking more overseas students?”

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